Risto Kalmre is a graphic designer from Tallinn, Estonia and one of the main guys behind the Simpel Session contest. I was fortunate enough to get to meet Risto this past January in Estonia where I got to attend the contest and see the country first hand. I had a blast in Estonia, the contest was amazing and I was really psyched to get to meet Risto. One of the things I was really impressed with was the branding and identity for the contest. When I showed up, Risto picked me up at the airport and I had no idea he was a designer… It’s funny when you meet people and you get completely surprised by who they are and what they do… Risto was definitely one of those guys.

Check out a full interview with a bunch of Risto’s work after the jump -

What’s your name and where are you from?

My name is Risto Kalmre and I’m from Tallinn, Estonia.

Has Estonia changed a lot from when you were a little kid to now?

Yeah, you could definitely say that. When I was a little kid Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. It’s been 17 years since the country gained back it’s independence and things are very different now. And most things are better of course.

How did you get into BMX?

I became good friends with guys named Pent Talvet and Timo Toots when I went to high school. They were among the first people to have bikes (chrome Diamondback and Dyno) at the time in Estonia. I think they both had had it about a year or a bit less when I met them. I got hooked and got myself a ride too. So we started riding together and things went from there.

Did BMX get you into design and art, or were you always into that kind of stuff?

BMX didn’t get me into art and design. I have liked to draw ever since I was very young and even went to children’s art schools when I was a kid. But BMX definitely had it’s role in picking it up again when I was around 16. When I was in high school I started to hang out with Pent a lot since we both rode and he was into art as well. So we both started to do some things together. Did some graffity and drew some comic books. Pent was colouring the comic outlines with Paint Shop Pro and early Photoshop. So this got me into learning Photoshop as well. Timo was into photography and we started up a BMX web-zine and things evolved from there. Looking back into my chidhood then I had been using computer even back then. Doing some weird local newszine and learning early version of Corel Draw when I was a young kid. So I guess the interest was alway there. But BMX definitely took it back to my life in my teenage years. Of course I didn’t know until I went to study in university that there’s a lot more in graphic design and it can be way more involved in editorial level and in terms of language and content.

Did you study design?

I studied media art for one year in Tartu Art College - city where I was born. Then I moved to Tallinn to study graphic design in Estonian Art Academy for a year and a half. For the last two years I studied in graphic design department in Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, which I graduated in the summer of 2006.

What kind of projects do you work on, on a regular basis?

I’m doing Sahtel magazine together with Jan Tomson and photographer Tanel Tepper. My girlfriend Liina has helped out too with the upcoming issue. Aside from that I’m doing various design work for a theater, some galleries and other cultural institutions. Occasionally I have some other jobs in between, some cultural and some more commercial. I’m also teaching graphic design in Estonian Academy of Art.

How did you get involved with Simpel Sessions?

Back when we started riding we were among the first in the country and there was nowhere to ride. Noone knew anything about BMX. So we asked some money from the city, got some sponsors and built a skatepark. After we had done it we wanted to do some sort of an opening event. It was a small jam the first year but it was really fun so we continued doing it. It wasn’t called Simpel Session the first year but the second one already was. Four years later we took the event to Tallinn and moved indoors.

What are your rolls with the contest as far as designing and running the contest?

Through the years a lot of the designs have been made by me. But now Jan Tomson is largely involved in it too, since those months before the contest tend to get quite busy organizing wise. I still do some of the print designs but we usually work together on the identity. Beside designing I’m doing most of the things that event organizing involves. The team is basically 2-3 people, depending of the year. So everyone is pretty much multitasking - doing sponsors, media, course, branding, hosting etc. In recent years I’m more off from sponsors and media part but I still handle the international media and some of the partners that have been on board for a while. It’s a tight period but it’s just a few months of the year, so it’s okay. I also design and do the website and organize riders.

How about Sahtel, how did that come about?

We started Sahtel magazine in the fall of 2004. Me, Pent and Timo had always thought that it would be rad to have our own printed magazine ever since we started with the webzine. And at the same time two of our friends, Jan and Tanel, had also come up with an idea to do a small printed skatezine. So we started it up together. We published five issues and then had a break because I was studying abroad and the rest of the crew was also somewhat spread out. We decided to get back into it this fall.

It’s self published. Do you have any tips for people that are looking to do their own magazine?

Hm, I don’t know if I have any good tips. I think you just have to be consistent and precise in what you’re doing and keep experimenting. Like pretty much in anything else, I guess. Good time management is a good thing to have. I’m not that good in that though and keep doing other stuff in between too. The magazine doesn’t really pay my living, so I kind of have to. I think it’s also easier not to sell out and keep it exactly how you want it when you’re doing it on your own. On the other hand it’s also harder to survive.

Do you have any plans to do an English version in the future?

We have been talking about it and it might happen. The Estonian population is so small that it’s very difficult for the niche magazines to survive here. Right now our circulation is just 1500 copies and we do it more or less for Estonia only. There’s just 1,4 million people living here, so you can imagine we don’t make a fortune with this project. At the moment we’re considering a sort of bilingual version. Not so much because of financial reasons, but for making it more interesting for ourselves to work with.

Where can we see more of your work?

I had a website where I had some works but I got fed up with it and started to update it. I haven’t managed to finish the update yet as I’m busy with other things, but I will let you know when it’s done. Meanwhile here are some photos of my works.

Thanks a lot!!

You can check out Risto’s site here - risto.dart.ee
Or check him out on Flickr - flickr.com/photos/ristokal
Check out the Sahtel site here - sahtel.ee
And make sure to check out the Simpel Sessions site - session.ee

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